THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 29886

SPE 29886

A Laboratory Study of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Relaxation and its

Relation to Depositional Texture and Petrophysical Properties -
Carbonate Thamama Group, Mubarraz Field, Abu Dhabi

W.E. Kenyon,* Schlumberger-Doll Research; H. Takezaki, Abu Dhabi Oil

Company (Japan); C. Straley, P.N. Sen,* M. Herron,* A. Matteson,
Schlumberger-Doll Research; M.J. Petricola,* Schlumberger-Middle East.

*SPE Member

Copyright 1995, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Middle East Oil
Show held in Bahrain, 11-14 March 1995.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee

following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by
the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not
necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum
Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings
are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the
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ABSTRACT

We performed laboratory measurements to determine whether NMR logging

would improve log evaluation of the Mubarraz Field. The Mubarraz Field
is a carbonate field in offshore Abu Dhabi, that produces from the
Cretaceous Thamama Group.

Existing log evaluation using classical logs has some shortcomings.

Some zones that are not highly resistive actually produce water-free
oil. This is because Mubarraz samples often have a large amount of
microporosity. The microporosity occurs because samples are highly
micritized, and grain-sized particles are generally peloidal with
internal microporosity. The microporosity holds a large volume of
capillary-bound water, which results in low resistivities in zones
that still have producible oil in large pores. An additional
evaluation problem is that permeability varies widely while porosity
remains almost constant. As a result, permeability vs. porosity
correlations are less valuable than normal.

In laboratory measurements on Mubarraz samples, we found that NMR

relaxation measurements can provide:

-good estimation of the capillary-bound water volume at an air/water

capillary pressure of 25 psi, using a cutoff on NMR T2 relaxation time
of 190 ms.
 THE SPE IMAGE LIBRARY SPE 29886

-good identification of the grainstones as opposed to the

lower-permeability textures (packstone... mudstone) with a T2
threshold of about 225 milliseconds.

-estimates of permeability that are significantly better than can be

obtained from porosity alone.

NMR relaxation measurements contain information about the pore size

distribution, and it is this information that permits estimation of
production-governing parameters. The estimators are based on
parameters that can be obtained from continuous NMR logging.

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